The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

for Enfield North between 1997 and 2010, and is a member of the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

. She had previously been deputy leader of Barnet Council.

Early life

She went to St Joseph Secondary School and Notre Dame High School in the Warrington area. At the City of Liverpool College of Higher Education she gained a BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

London South Bank University is a university in south London. With over 25,000 students and 1,700 staff, it is based in the London Borough of Southwark, near the South Bank of the River Thames, from which it takes its name...

. She worked as a teacher of Sociology and European Politcs in Hammersmith

Hammersmith

Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...

.
She worked as a freelance oral history interviewer for the Imperial War Museum for a period of three years in the mid-1980s.

Parliamentary career

Joan Ryan served as a local Labour Councillor for eight years. She was Chair of Policy and Finance and deputy leader of Barnet Council before being elected as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

.

Ryan was parliamentary private secretary to Andrew Smith, as well as a senior whip

Whip (politics)

A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...

. From 5 May 2006 to 29 June 2007, Ryan was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for nationality, citizenship and immigration at the Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

, succeeding Andy Burnham. She had particular responsibility for ID cards and passports, the Forensic Science Service, refugee integration, E-borders, extradition and judicial cooperation, the Criminal Records Bureau, Home Office research and science, improving regulation, and design and green issues.

The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

she retained her seat with a slightly reduced majority.

Ryan's voting record includes support for the Iraq war and the introduction of ID cards.

Hazel Anne Blears is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Salford and Eccles since 2010 and was previously the MP for Salford since 1997...

in the Labour party's 2007 deputy leadership election, Blears came sixth in the election. On 29 June, it was announced that the Prime Minister had appointed Ryan as Special Representative to Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...

as Labour Party leader. For this she was fired as Vice Chair of the Labour Party and Prime Minister's envoy to Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

on 14 September 2008.

In February 2010 she received the Friend of Ireland Award from the Labour Party Irish Society, for her working in supporting the Irish community in Britain.

Geoffrey Nicholas "Nick" de Bois is a British Conservative Party politician, who was elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament for Enfield North, defeating the Labour incumbent MP Joan Ryan....

by 1,692 votes in the May 2010 General Election poll.

Personal life

she lived in Enfield with her husband, Martin Hegarty, and children. She has three grandchildren.

After Parliament

After losing her seat Ryan was appointed Chief Executive of the Global Tamil Forum, and later also became deputy director of the successful NOtoAV

NOtoAV

NOtoAV was a political campaign in the United Kingdom whose purpose was to persuade the public to vote against the Alternative Vote in the referendum on Thursday, 5 May 2011. NOtoAV was successful in maintaining the current voting system having received 67.9% of votes cast.-Parties in the House of...

campaign.
A board member and trustee of Riders for Health since 1998 Joan was appointed Chair of the Board in October 2010 - Riders for Health is an award winning social enterprise that manages and maintains vehicles used in the delivery of health care and other vital services to rural communities in Africa.